Electrical rotating machinery such as motors and generators of the direct current type have rotating armature mounted windings in which the winding leads are brought out to commutators where field electrical connections are made. Alternating current motors and generators having wound rotors also may have the winding leads connected to slip rings to enable connection of these windings to external equipment. The installation of armature or rotor windings requires manual placement and attachment of a number of winding sections onto a magnetic core which has been previously attached to a rotatable shaft. Each of the winding sections is inserted into axially extending slots in the core at different circumferential locations along the periphery of the core. The handling of the rotor or armature and the attaching of the winding sections requires care in avoiding damage to winding insulation covering, to slip rings or commutator sections, and to the bearing surfaces of the shaft. The work is particularly difficult since the core must be moved in a sequential fashion to, and held at, a work position for the attaching of several adjacent winding sections and then rotated again to the next work position. The difficulty of the work is increased significantly where the rotors or armatures are of larger and heavier sizes making their movement to each work position and the holding at each position to a considerable strain for the person doing winding work. It should be noted that the term "rotor", as used herein, is intended to mean the rotating member of any electrical machine including the armature of a direct current motor or generator.